SWITCHengines: more attractive for SNSF researchers

Since the start of 2018, researchers who use SWITCH's cloud services for their Swiss National Science Foundation-funded projects have been able to pass on the full costs to the SNSF. Cloud-based IT infrastructure enables researchers to concentrate fully on their core tasks.

Testo: Christoph Witzig, pubblicato il 09.03.2018

SWITCH sees itself as part of the university community. Its longstanding, trusting and fair collaboration with this community has produced services, from which researchers can also benefit. Researchers often handle large quantities of data, and need to be able to do so securely and reliably. SWITCHengines’ scalable computing and storage services offer a solution that fulfils these requirements.

A straightforward order process allows researchers to reserve the desired IT capacity quickly and easily online. The services booked then become available immediately. This is made possible by SWITCH’s server structure, in which several thousand virtual servers operate simultaneously in various configurations. SWITCH also operates two datacentres in Swiss universities; one in Lausanne and one in Zurich. SWITCH makes the servers in these datacentres available to SWITCHengines as well.

IT infrastructures for a variety of applications

Researchers particularly value the flexible pay-per-use model which allows them to access additional computing or storage space at any time, and to pay only for what they use. However, if they know that they’re going to be using SWITCHengines over a longer period, they can take advantage of a discount based on the length of the project and the total desired volume of storage and computing power. Using these methods, SWITCHengines renders the often significant investments required for on-premises solutions unnecessary. Freed from the need for expensive hardware, inconvenient maintenance downtime and updates, researchers can save both time and money. What’s more, they always have access to the latest hardware, so there’s no need for university departments to continue maintaining old, rarely used hardware once a project is finished. SWITCH IT technicians ensure that SWITCHengines is always up to date and guarantee optimal failure protection.

Researchers working with SWITCHengines can rest assured that they are in safe hands in every respect: the infrastructure is redundantly connected to SWITCH’s academic network – SWITCHlan – with two 10 GBit/s connections. All data located in the cloud is stored exclusively in Switzerland and is protected by Swiss law. It is also subject to the SWITCH foundation's governance, which is recognised by the universities themselves.

New: SNSF researchers can pass on the full costs of SWITCHengines usage

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has confirmed to SWITCH that, as of 1 January 2018, SWITCHengines is among the services for which researchers are permitted to pass on the full costs to the foundation. SWITCH does not pursue commercial goals, nor does it aim to produce a profit. The SWITCHengines tariff adopted by the Foundation Council is binding for all universities and therefore also applies to SNSF-funded projects without alteration.